June 1, 2015

Hello everyone!

Things here are all going well. Thankfully I’ve been feeling a lot better this week. It’s just really cold here now that we are in winter. We were never really able to pinpoint exactly what it was that made me sick but we are just gonna say it was the water. Basically, we are given bottles here in the mission that filter water so I was just filtering water that was from the faucet and drinking that. However, they tell me here that the water is so contaminated that a filter like the one I use cant filter out all the bugs. However, I just started drinking bottled water and taking some pills that my zone leaders gave me and I’m better now. Also my comp wasn’t affected at all. He just had a severe case of boredom.

You know, truthfully, it really doesn’t feel like my birthday today. I kinda forgot about it this week and then yesterday in church with my comp I was thinking about p-day and then it hit me that it was gonna be my birthday. But speaking of being old, turns out I’m the second oldest missionary (as far as time in the mission) in my zone of 24 missionaries. Kinda weird to think about. I don’t even remember how I got to where I am now.

Anyway, for our p-day, we don’t have anything planned because there isn’t really much to do here in Juliaca. Some missionaries are playing some soccer so we may head over there for a bit. However, I’m finally going to try to make an apple pie so we'll see how that goes today. Hey and watch out, you’re almost 50 here. Speaking of which, my comp’s mom just turned 50 2 days ago.

Man, I can’t believe Tara got a second cat, though. She’s starting to turn into a cat lady. Man, that’s the first I’ve heard though of Elder Tom Perry dying. That’s pretty crazy, though. But at least he lived a good life. I wonder who they are going to call as the next apostle.

Anyway, as for my week, everything has been good. We are starting to work a lot more with a guy named Angel who was a poffesor [professor?]. Anyway, the member who gave us the contact told us that his wife had passed away. He seems really open and interested, especially when we were teaching the plan of salvation to him. Other than that, all of our other investigators are still in the same position still needing to get married. We are also working with a lot of less actives. Just this last week we had 11 lessons with less actives. One of which also just received his mission call.

Well that’s about it for me this week but I’m glad to hear all is good back home. But I love you all and will talk to you all next week!

Elder Halverson

May 25, 2015

Hello everyone.

Well not really too much to report on for this week. I think I drank some contaminated water or something but let’s just say I’ve been having some stomach problems this week (probably don’t want to hear the details).

Anyway, so basically we couldn’t really leave the house for this week. However, I got some pills from the zone leaders and now I’m better so hopefully this next week should be a lot better.

But to answer your questions, Elder Caprio is actually a zone leader in a zone in Apurimac. Our new zone leader is an Elder named Elder Heslop who I don’t know. Also, we still haven’t had our interviews with the president yet. Most likely we will have them this week, though.

As far as snow, though, Puno very rarely gets snow. This is normally because the winter here is also the dry season so right now it’s pretty dang dusty without rain so I was kinda hoping that we would get snow.

Anyway, so that’s all I got for this week. Glad to hear all is well at home. But I love you all and until next week!

Elder Halverson

May 18, 2015

Man that would be nice. But it won’t be long until we talk face to face. 

Anyway, now for the weekly report. XD Basically, this week has been pretty simple. Today are changes but like I was expecting, I’m staying with my companion. Also, we are losing more missionaries than we are gaining still so they have closed some more sectors; however, I don’t know which ones. Also, talking about the changes, I also don’t know who my new zone leader is because our previous gringo zone leader just ended his mission (along with Elder Nicholls). However, I personally hope that it will be Elder Caprio (my MTC comp) because he is now leaving the office and I personally believe he will be made a zone leader. 

As for the rest of the week, it has been pretty simple. However, some of the less actives we are working with are starting to progress a little. We are still working on getting a wedding date for Ismael and Maria but there is an elderly lady who has been coming to church recently and also wants us to teach her daughter (who is currently recovering from a brain tumor) as well as her granddaughter so that will be pretty cool to do. Also, we are working with another less active/investigator couple who the woman is the sister of our bishop. The cool thing is that her "husband" came to church with her this week. I used quotation marks because like most of the people here they also aren't married... :T  

Anyway, that’s all the dig on the people we are teaching. As far as our weather here, it’s starting to get colder here, in fact it almost snowed here this week. Also, yesterday we had no power for our entire sector so that was pretty interesting. But yea that’s all I got for now but I love you guys and will talk to you next week!

Elder Halverson

May 11, 2015 - Mother's Day Skype!!

Since yesterday was Mother's Day, we got to talk to Chase on the phone for 1 hour 47 minutes! He looks great, he sounds great, he IS great! His testimony is stronger than ever and he loves serving the people of Peru, whom he loves.  Today, he just sent pictures with this message: "yea i got nothin new either but ill send some pics"  LOL

A little bit of Juliaca

Cooking with my comp and pensionista

Puno with the lake (Lake Titicaca)

"The Nerds" playing Dungeons and Dragons for p-day

May 4, 2015

Hello Everyone!

I asked my companion about the volcano in  Argentina and he has heard about it but he said there is nothing over by it. But no we haven’t seen any ash over here. Also, speaking of chuño, yep that’s exactly it. Also the feet that smash it are old lady feet that walk around barefoot all day long and never bathe. Pretty dang nasty stuff. I mainly only ate it in Choquehuanca and I now refuse to eat it saying it’s against the word of wisdom. Basically the best way to explain the flavor is like fresh sweaty gym socks. Basically because of where I live (meaning that because of the altitude here) is why it’s possible to make chuño. When it rains, it is really, really cold (a lot of the time it hails instead of rains) but when the sun is out, we are so close to it that it heats things up really fast and will burn you in no time. It’s actually kinda funny because there is like a 20 degree difference between the shade and sun here. Also, winter here is mainly really cold at night but other than that it’s also a very dry season. So normally the sun is out all day and everything is dry and dead and then at night everything freezes. However, it still doesn’t get as cold here as it does back home. But in our room we do not have a heater or anything so we just bundle up all the time... And sometimes cuddle. Ok, that’s actually not true. 

Anyway as for this week, it went pretty well. We received some new contacting cards that have questions on them (not sure if you have seen them). Anyway, we did an activity with them in a marketplace where we made some posters and set up a desk that have cards, pamphlets, and Liahonas on it. We then began to contact everyone we saw. The cool thing about the activity was all the people that were actually interested who saw what we were doing would come and talk to us so we didn’t have to contact them personally. So now we just have a bunch of people to contact. Other than that we haven’t had any real progression with any of our investigators yet. However, we are starting to work a lot with the leaders of our ward so that it will be able to function better. I also did divisions with my district leader this week which was pretty cool. Also, they have a really warm house. But that’s about all that happened this week.

As for Sunday, I will most likely call you at 3:00 or 4:00 my time (which I think will be during your church hours), but that would be good to have some time with you guys first and then later with everyone. But until then, I love you guys and will talk to you Sunday! 

Elder Halverson

April 27, 2015

Ok, first I will attempt to answer all of your questions. So basically to explain Juliaca, it is just like I remember. What you saw is basically what Juliaca is like: cold, dirty, and a lot of cars (mototaxis). However, I still like it in my own little weird way. And yes this is my first time being a senior comp (I think). I don’t ever really check on that jazz. That yellow sign that you saw is actually right next to our chapel and so I actually see it quite a bit. Speaking of buildings, my house is the first floor of our pensionista’s house. It’s cold and dark so we call it the cave. It took me a good week to get used to how cold it is. XD However, I just share it with my companion. Basically, it has 2 rooms with that bathroom outside under the stairs (also really cold). As for the food, my pensionista here cooks pretty good and she lets us cook sometimes too. However, the food in Cusco was better. She always jokes that she is going to feed me chunyo but I hope I never have to eat that again. As far as the people we have contacted, our appointments with them are either later this week or we are still in the process of finding them at home so there really isn’t anything new to report on them. Also for all the missionaries in the Juliaca zone, I believe in all there are 22 in our zone.

It’s funny you bring up Puno because we actually went there twice this week. Friday we went for a multi-zone conference with zones Puno and Juli (Puno has 2 zones). Probably actually one of the best conferences with the President we have had. Anyway, the second time was for a training on family history with the missionary couple who are working in that (the Johnsons). It’s funny because back in Cusco I did a lot of work with them. Also while I was there I met up with some other missionary nerds and we have planned to play some Dungeons and Dragons this next p-day in Puno. Also Lake Titicaca is huge. I’ll get some pictures of it next time I go. But other than that, this week has been pretty good. Me and my comp are still getting along really well. I just don’t have much to say on the people we are teaching because they haven’t really progressed and I’m still trying to get to know them.

However, this week it was funny because we had another guy contact us but this time it was this half drunk guy who told us he wanted help in his life. I swear this is the most I have had people contact me. Anyway that’s all I really got for now but I love you all and I’m glad to hear all is going well back home and I will talk to you in 2 weeks Woot!

Elder Halverson

P.S. I can’t help but think of the video game character every time you mention Ahri XD

This is a YouTube video I watched on Juliaca and is what Chase is referring to in his letter. The yellow sign is at 3:13 in the video.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cHAgmip3Iw  I looked up Chunyo, and it's a frozen potato concoction that seems pretty gross. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu%C3%B1o)

April 20, 2015

Hello everyone!

We had a pretty good week. I just got a couple funny stories that I want to tell you. Ok, so first, there is a couple we are teaching and one night while we were there I had a beanie on because it’s really cool here. For whatever reason, the wife kept giggling every time I started to talk. I asked her what it was and she said it was nothing. I then attempted to say is it because of my beanie but instead of chuyo (word for beanie) I said chorro (which means robber). It really wasn’t that funny but she just lost it. Juliaca is indeed in need of some good quality humor.

Ok, so these next 2 both happened in the same day. Also, they were both people who contacted us. The first guy was a professor from Lima and he was here selling some mathematic books he wrote. He came up to us and told us, "I respect you guys for what you do, would you be able to share your message with me by chance?" So far we have taught him twice and he came to church on his own and he has got some dang good questions. Sadly, he leaves Juliaca tomorrow but we were able to pass his info to Lima. The other was a college student who started talking to us on the street and his first words were, "I don’t want to be Mormon." I was a little put off by that and simply told him that he didn’t have to talk to us then. He later rephrased and said, "I don’t want to be baptized but I want to learn more about your religion because I’ve heard a lot of people say I know that it’s true and I want to know why." Anyway, we took down his contact information and we'll see if we can contact him this week.

This is the last one I got. Ok, so a few days ago me and my comp found a cell phone in the street and brought it home. After 30 minutes a very worried guy called us and we met up with him to return his phone. We asked him if we could share our message with him and he said we could. So later that day he showed us his house. Turns out he lives right behind us and we were able to teach him and his wife.

Anyway, those are my stories for this week. I’m glad you are all doing well and tell grandma (well she will actually probably read this email) that I wish her a happy birthday and I love her! But I’m looking forward to talking to you all next month for Mother’s Day! But until then goodbye and I love you all!

Elder Halverson

His companion made pizza!                                  And then...

Right after washing his hair, or his "lovely locks" as he put it.