Yay! I finally finished my training for the mission! Now I have a little bit more freedom to choose what I study and when!
This week was a good week. It’s nice that things seem like they’re starting to go our way here in (fake) Machu Picchu! Other than the improvement in the work (We might actually be able to get 4 baptisms this month!) and investigators falling out of the sky (We’ve had several people now ask us if we’re Mormons and where the chapel is, and they’ve agreed to let us visit them!), not much has happened. I’ll mention some small highlights (and lowlights, too):
Last P-Day we played Jenga, and that was kind of interesting because we had everyone in the zone play, meaning there were about 16 of us. One of the things that makes games in Peru fun is the loser (or second place) has a castigo, or punishment, so there’s a little more on the line! There are a few I’ve seen, such as “estatua” (“statue”), where the person can’t move and everyone else gets to take turns moving their limbs to put them in goofy positions, but the castigo for Elder Herrera, who finally toppled the Jenga tower, was the funniest yet: he had to spell his name with his rear end! I got a video, but it’s a little too big to send in the email. Needless to say, we were dying!
Also, apparently I have ANOTHER nickname in the mission! I already had “Elder Head & Shouder” (“Elder Head and Shoulder” with a Spanish accent) and “Elder H&S” because to try and help people pronounce my name Elder Terrones told them it was pronounced like “Shoulder” in the name of the shampoo “Head & Shoulder”! So that’s one, and apparently I’m also “Elder Ken”, as in Ken and Barbie, because of a training meeting we had! President Erickson was sharing his conversion story and he had me and another Elder come up for a demonstration. So we were both standing up there and President told everyone about how the two Elders who met and converted him were like us: white, blonde, and “muy guapo” (“very good-looking”), like Ken from Ken and Barbie! We were both just kind of standing there, and I thought, “What the heck, time to look dumb!” So I struck a pose and everyone laughed! So I guess I’m Elder Ken now, too!
We celebrated my birthday a little on Wednesday with pizza but we didn’t get to finish all of it because a CAT got in while we slept and ate the last piece! We REALLY need to fix the window!
But my favorite part about Wednesday was I KICKED A DOG! I’ve been wanting to kick a dog for a while now because some of them are REALLY vicious and bark at us and get a little too close for comfort, gnashing their teeth and everything. Normally Elder Terrones will swing his bag at them and that kind of works, but if you pick up a rock and throw it in their general direction is better. But this dog kind of surprised me and it got really close, so I just kicked it in the face! Don’t feel too bad for it; it’s a big dog and it ALWAYS bothers us whenever we pass by. It was really satisfying!
On Thursday I got really sick and still can’t eat anything; I think I got some kind of stomach bug from the pizza. This is the SECOND TIME I’ve been sick because Peruvians don’t cook their food enough!
Anything else? Well, we didn’t have electricity but needed to shower, so we kind of made do; #ghettoperu!
What else, what else?… Oh yeah! Changes!
Every 6 weeks we have companion changes (maybe), and this is the first time that I’m actually having a change of companion. Elder Terrones is going to another area and I’m going to stay here with another companion. I don’t remember his name, but apparently he’s only got this following change left and then he goes home, so he might be a little lazy, but hopefully not. I’ll let you know how it all goes.
¡Hasta luego!
— Elder Schroeder
