October 27, 2014

Hello everyone!

So this was a pretty good week this last week. Everything in my sector is exactly the same except for my house and my comp. I’m now also visiting different people. Also my old comp went to the other zone in Cusco so I don’t see him anymore. Basically what happened is he was whining a lot to the pensionista and he owed her a lot of money. I should be getting the money he owes me this week.

So this week was pretty good. More than anything I’m just getting to know the new investigators I have now. However, with my comp we have baptismal dates for basically every Saturday in November so that will be pretty cool. Also, the rain has been coming on a lot this week. We have been getting really patchy rain storms almost every day in the week. But everything here is going good. Also something that happened that is funny in the changes is my MTC comp is now companions with Elder Nicholls. So now they can both talk about [me].  

But other than that, all is normal in my sector. We now have 3 gringos here in my sector and 1 Latino so we are really working hard with him to learn English. Also all my comps want to go to America so they can get to know Tara. (It’s really only just Tara because she is the only one who is close to their age.) But they basically think all the girls in our family are attractive. But today for p-day we went to Chilies for lunch and then we are going to play some volleyball later.

As for Halloween, I’m still not sure how it’s going to be but me and my comp bought some pumpkins to carve for Halloween so that will be pretty fun.

Well that’s basically everything for this week. Glad to hear that you are all doing well and can’t wait to hear from you all next week. I love you all.

Elder Halverson

 This is how it looks when I shine my shoes

 Me and my old comp. (Elder Bazan)

 This is how my desk looks now.

These are the elders of my sector. The Latino in the black shirt is my comp.

October 20, 2014

I’m feeling a lot better now thankfully. The funny thing is that we had a zone meeting that Monday and so I felt bad about missing it until I heard that it went 5 and a half hours when they are only supposed to be 2 hours. So it would have been pretty miserable to be there that long while I was sick.

This week was pretty good. However, the zone leaders had to talk to me and my comp because my comp and my pensionista have been having some problems. However changes are today and they are pretty crazy. So my comp saw his changes first today and told me he has a new comp but is in the same sector. I still hadn’t seen the changes and so I was feeling pretty bad because I thought that I was going to be leaving Cusco. However, when I looked at my change I’m actually just changing to go to the other companionship in my sector because my sector is shared by 2 companionships. Then his comp (Elder Jensen who is from Spanish Fork) is actually changing to where I am right now to train a gringo. Then my current comp was mistaken and is getting a change to the other zone in Cusco to be in a trio. So that probably sounds confusing but I’m just changing spots with an elder in my sector. However, it means I have to change houses which I don’t want to do because just last change I had to move everything here. Plus Elder Jensen doesn’t want to move to my current house so we are both trying to convince Elder Muñoz to move into my house. But that’s the big news here. 

A normal day’s lunch for us is rice with some form of meat that is covered in a really good sauce and then bananas or potatoes or something like that. We also eat soup with lunch. Breakfast is hot chocolate or Ecco (which tastes like coffee but isn’t) with scrambled eggs and oatmeal. We also have bread with jam. Dinner varies, for example last night we ate rice with milk, and masa mora which is a thick hot liquid made from purple corn but actually tastes really good. Another night we ate a hot dog on a stick with a potato on the end and we just dipped it in either Ají which is a hot sauce, ketchup, or mayonnaise. After that we had banana pancakes with condensed milk. And that’s just some of the stuff we eat. Also we eat a lot of fried banana which is actually better than it sounds. Also we don’t live with the pension; we have to walk there but it’s closer than before in Choquehuanca. 

Right now we are kinda lacking in investigators but this Saturday we are doing invasions here so hopefully we can find some new people. Most of our work has been with less actives and trying to complete families. And yes the Peruvians celebrate Halloween and I’m not sure exactly how it is but I heard there is a really cool parade/party thing in the main plaza so we may go watch a bit of it with members that day. Plus I’m not sure for how long we will be able to work on Halloween.

I also learned that Octoberfest is all about beer when I was in my German class in high school. Our teacher basically told us all about it. They also have Octoberfest here and especially this week I saw a ton of people in parties drinking.

Anyway that’s about it for the news this week. I’m glad to hear that you are all doing well and keeping busy. I’m trying to do the same here. I love you all and look forward to hearing from you next week.

Elder Halverson

p.s. everyone who sees pictures of our family (mainly other elders) all think that the girls are very attractive XD

October 13, 2014

Hello everyone!

Sorry I’m writing a little late, I woke up a little sick today so I slept in a bit and I’m just now getting a chance to write. Thankfully it wasn’t like when I was in my last sector and it’s just a little cold.

Anyway so things are back to normal now though. And yea conference was awesome. There were about 14 of us Americans watching it in English. Also, I do have favorites but they are all written in my notebook which I forgot to bring with me so right now I can’t remember who the talks were by. I’m looking forward to the Liahona to come out so I can closer study the talks. This week, like I said, was pretty normal with the conference being our highlight this week. My companion was also a little sad because they dubbed over the Chinese speaker. He was looking forward to hearing him.

Just something that I felt like doing is that I just want to thank you and dad for everything. For everything you taught me and for everything you have done to help me in my life. I just want to let you guys know how much I appreciate you and how much I love you guys. 

Anyway, sorry I don’t really have much to write this week but it was good to hear from you and that everyone is doing good. We are also in the last week of this change so next week I’ll have info on the changes. Anyway I love you all and until next week!

Elder Halverson

October 6, 2014

Hello everybody.

Well yesterday was super weird. Basically the elections for the entire country everywhere for every office all happen in one day. Pretty crazy. Anyway we basically had nothing to do because everyone was busy. All of our appointments got canceled. Also it can be a little dangerous during the elections so our mission president told us that we had to go out in street clothes and without our plaques. It felt super weird.

Anyway we went to the bishop’s house first and my comp cooked ceviche, which is basically raw fish salad that´s drenched in a ton of lime juice to kill the bacteria on the fish. Can’t say I’m the biggest fan of it but it’s one of Peru´s most famous dishes. Anyway, after that we basically just went to visit members. Other than that, though, nothing really happened this week. It was really slow with everyone preparing for the elections.

I’ve seen people who clap instead of knock but it’s mostly elders who are from other Latino countries. Here they will knock with a pen or coin or something. However, we don’t really knock doors. Our mission president is really trying to encourage member references which I think is what they are doing in the whole world.

We still have no idea what to do for p-day because I have no money because my comp had to borrow 55 soles from me and his credit card for the mission doesn’t work so we have to wait for our district leader to go to the office to get his money for him. But I think he´s going to do that today so hopefully we will have money to do something today. What we would like to do is go to Cristo Blanco first and then go to some ruins nearby called saxywamong or something like that. I swear every time someone says the name it sounds like they are saying sexy woman. But yea, they are ruins with those giant boulder that are so tight together that you can’t even fit a knife between them. More than anything, there are a ton of ruins nearby to visit. There is also a mall.

I’m actually not exactly sure what all there is here because I still don’t know Cusco too well. Also, I am close enough to Machu Picchu to go there but I want to go in November, December, or January because that’s during the rainy season so it will be a lot greener. Basically there are 3 zones that get to go to Machu Picchu and if you are never in one of those zones then you have to wait till the end of your mission to go. The good thing is that they are good about making sure everyone has a chance to go at sometime. But yea, the 3 zones are the 2 zones here in Cusco and Valle Sagrado, which is a little north of here and Machu Picchu is literally in their zone. However, they only get to go once because you have to take a train to get there and it takes a lot of planning to send the missionaries there.

I hope next week we will have a little more success now that the elections are over. But other than that, not much more has been happening here. But I can’t wait to see conference this next week. I think all the missionaries order pizza or something to watch it because all us gringos get our own room in English. Also here we have a thing called “double dragon”. Basically this is when you are sick and you have diarrhea while you are throwing up. It’s very unpleasant and I’ve had it 4 times all while I was in Choquehuanca. So hopefully Tara never has to deal with that. XD

Anyway, that’s all for me this week. I’m glad to hear everyone is doing well and I love you all. Until next week!

Elder Halverson  

 We have to go up stairs like this probably 5-10 times a day.

 My district eating lunch at a member's house.

Just some cool clouds coming over the mountain one day.