Hola, everyone! A few weeks ago I couldn’t find some of the grammar keys (I still can’t! I’ve been using the accent mark for an apostraphy (However you spell that. My English has been getting worse as I’ve gotten more used to Spanish)) and this week I can’t use the Enter key! It’s just one problem after another, so I’ll try to make it easy to tell where the next paragraphs should be!
Mom and Dad, you mentioned that some other people want to get my emails, so I’ll start off by telling you that you can send it to whomever you want. If they want to hear about my mission, I’ve got no problem with it. SO, for those of you who are not part of my family and are going to get this, I apologize for the dumb stuff I write and talk about. I figure my family is more likely to forgive me for that stuff than you are, so… yeah.
I figure this week I’ll give you my schedule for the general days (and a description for each activity) so I don’t have to explain anymore and no one has to wonder. It’s not the most thrilling, but then you’ll understand what living here is like. Next week I plan to do a Q&A thing, so if you have any requests please shoot me an email and I’ll try to provide some short answers (or long ones, if there’s more to discuss). And I know you have already sent me some questions already, and I plan to answer those if I have time, but if not I’ll get to them next week.
So, without further ado, my schedule for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday (Wednesday is Preparation-Day), Friday, and Saturay is as follows:
6:30 AM – Arise and Prepare: This usually happens closer to 6:35 because it’s hard to get decent sleep around here. Even if the sky is brown (for some reason) and cloudy all night, it’s really bright. Luckily, I swiped a sleep mask from the plane and have been using that lately. One of these days I’m going to wake up with it on and think I’ve gone blind!
7:15 AM – Breakfast: I would go into more detail about this, but we actually don’t eat strange foods for breakfast (Just the other day we had pancakes!). Don’t get me wrong, everything we eat has a… unique Peruvian taste (we’ll go with that), but it’s not inherently strange. Usually involves eggs, soup (For the adventureous! There’s always some unidentified chunks! Mmmmm!), yogurt, LOTS of toast (It’s the best-tasting thing we usually eat for breakfast), cereal with milk (I usually don’t have it), and juice. By far the best part of breakfast is the juice. Usually they have orange juice and milk, but they always have juice for lunch and dinner too, and they’re all really good (And possibly freshly-squeezed — you can get seeds sometimes!). So far I’ve had orange, lemon, pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, lime, and cranberry juice!
8:00 AM – Personal Study: We’re supposed to spend this hour reading scriptures or Preach My Gospel or learning Spanish, but unfortunately we usually spend it all talking because our group is the test district. I’ll explain: Usually, every District (group of 4-6 companionships) has at least 2 Hermanas. Ours does not. The other Districts have 3+ teachers. We have 2. Most Districts have someone who does nothing but mess around. We have 3 very disruptive Elders (I’ll describe all the Elders in my District in another email). In short, we’re certain we’re in some sort of test to see if we’ll actually learn Spanish (probably a test created by Heavenly Father), and right now the 3 disruptive Elders are able to get everyone off track consistently, so I’m pretty sure we’re failing. It would help a lot if we had a teacher in the room or if we could go somewhere else, but…
9:00 AM – Class with Hermano Flores: This is an OK class. It would be really great except it’s 3.5 hours of sitting there listening to Spanglish, meaning we go through from ready to antsy to subdued to tired and have trouble paying attention for the entire time (Especially Elder Parker, my companion! He falls asleep at least once in every class! (Again, more about him later)). Don’t get me wrong, I’ve learned a lot in the class, but some days it’s a struggle. As for Hermano Flores, he’s great and interesting, but his English isn’t the best and sometimes we get confused because we can’t understand some of the words he uses and he can’t understand some of ours, so I’ll just say I’m glad they gave us all Spanish-English Dictionaries. To describe him, he’s about 22 or 23 and likes to make jokes (Or, since he has an accent, yokes (A phrase the District has adopted because the first time he said it we all died laughing! (That first day was a very long day…))).
12:30 PM – Lunch: Lunch is my least favorite meal because it has the worst-tasting food (it’s not bad, but it’s not great). Lunch and dinner are the meals when we eat white rice (Without flavoring or anything! It’s so bland!) and some sort of chicken EVERY TIME. I never thought I would dislike chicken and rice so much! For dessert, they have gelatin or Peruvian pudding (basically a clear jelly with chunks of fruit in it) and sometimes ice cream bars from the freezer (No one even told us about the ice cream until Day 4!).
1:15 PM – TALL (Technology-Assisted Language Learning): Basically the part of the day where we go to the computer lab and attempt to learn new words without working audio and while attempting to avoid falling asleep or zoning out (It’s a struggle not many usually win).
2:15 PM – Additional Study: Basically Personal Study without 15 extra minutes of uselessness in the District room.
3:00 PM – Physical Activity: The one time we are allowed to wear something other than a button-up white shirt, slacks, and a tie and return to our rooms during the day. Then we go outside and do something to tire ourselves out, like playing soccer, volleyball, or using playground workout equipment (I say “Playground Workout Equipment” because they look exactly like things you’d find on a playground — same metal poles, same plastic, same colors — but are designed to provide an arm, leg, or core workout. It’s actually really cool.) I usually use the workout equipment; you get surprisingly tired from it! By the end of my mission I’m going to be ripped!
4:05 PM – Prepare for Class: Exactly what it sounds like.
4:45 PM – Class with Hermana Luna: A lot like the class with Flores, except our teacher is Hermana Luna and the class is divided by dinner, which happens in at 6:15 PM. This class and I have a love/hate relationship, because we have to teach an “investigator” (Hermana Luna acting as an investigator — complete with a little house to go to and teach in!) entirely in Spanish. It’s really hard, but it also is an excellent way for us to learn how to teach and speak Spanish. Of course, Hermana Luna can understand us — her English is better than Hermano Flores’s because she served a mission in Arizona — but she pretends not to, making it even more frustrating. Apparently Elder Parker and I are doing a really good job because she complemented us on our teaching the other day. We were teaching about the Book or Mormon and she said the “investigator” felt the Spirit strongly! I’m finally doing something right, and obviously Elder Parker is too!
6:15 PM – Dinner: Like lunch, but with better, warmer food and without ice cream. Usually the best meal of the day.
7:00 PM – Class with Hermana Luna (again): Usually the time we teach the “investigator” and study/goof off (I really need to find a way to focus when I’m surrounded by chaos).
9:00 PM – Daily Planning: The time we use to prepare our lessons for the next day we teach an investigator. It’s a lot like Personal Study.
9:30 PM – Prepare for Bed: When we get ready for bed in 5 minutes and talk
for 25.
10:00 PM – Quiet Time: I’m beginning to think it’s not misspelled on our horario (schedule) as “Quite Time” because it’s usually quite loud.
10:30 PM – Lights Off: Bedtime! I’ll admit I’m not usually in bed at 10:30 because THIS IS THE ONLY TIME IT’S QUIET and I use it to write in my journal!
So, there’s my schedule. If you want to spread the boredom, go for it. I’ll try to talk about my District and answer any questions I you send next week!
Adios!
Elder Schroeder