¡Hola! ¿Cómo están? ¿Qué tal?
This week in the extremely exciting life of Elder Schroeder, I:
Watched a movie I’ve seen so many times that even though it was in Spanish I could quote it in my head: The Emperor’s New Groove (Love that movie!) And it was appropriate for my mission because if you think about it, it’s about ancient Peru (kind of)! (Even in Spanish it still has one of the worst end credits songs ever)
Discovered, while cleaning the NEW house of Roxana, that she is packing heat (She found four little handguns in the bags of miscellaneous stuff she had all over her house! I’ll send a picture of one, but where the heck did she get four police-issue handguns?!)
Realized (again) that this is my life for the next 21 months (It still seems strange that I’m a missionary — I don’t really think about it much…)
Had the Spirit guide our lessons in really weird directions that were actually exactly what our investigators needed (We taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ when our plan was something COMPLETELY different! And it was really good!)
Discovered that this summer is very abnormal. It’s been MUCH colder and cloudier than usual, and I’m (kind of) loving it! (I would like it more if it wasn’t so hot, but at least it’s not hotter like it should be!)
Spent two days being trained in a general broadcast for all the missionaries in the world and being trained in a special mission-wide training session. There was a lot of good advice, and I think it’ll really help me be a better missionary. (Unfortunately we had to work extra hard to make up the difference in our lessons for the week)
Went to the Lima Temple for the sealing of the cousins of Elder Terrones. (Man, that guy can do just about whatever he wants! He can visit his family when the rules say we shouldn’t, he can go to the temple at the drop of a hat, and he can drag me to all of this even though I’m new and should instead be learning how to be a missionary!) I was really surprised at how short the sealing was; I expected it to last about 30 minutes, but really it was only about 5 for the actual ordinance! Who knew you could be sealed as a family for time and all eternity in 5 minutes?! (Sorry, that photo’s a little creepy… His cousin married a man from Italy, in case you were wondering who’s the big white guy next to the small Peruvian woman)
Discovered that I was right about how toxic Peru is. For the past month I’ve had this really bad cough, and a few days ago we confirmed that living here gave me bronchitis! (Ain’t nobody got time for that!) So, yeah, that’s not good…
As for the smaller stuff, I:
Had lots of trouble moving big rocks with a rope…
Didn’t have space to sit in the car properly, so we made do…
Lived off peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and oatmeal (again) (*sigh*…)
Other than that, not much is going on around here. It’s pretty routine, but this next week certainly won’t be because I’m going to be the senior companion. It’s part of the training I’m supposed to get in Week 11, and that means I’m in charge of making ALL the decisions, doing ALL the planning, and making sure my companion is doing what he’s supposed to! (Elder Terrones is loving this! He’s intentionally being really difficult! (I’m kind of hating his uselessness right now — at least I do something as the junior companion!)) So I’ll probably have some more to complain, I mean talk, about next week.
— Elder Schroeder
