This week’s been pretty great here in Peru. We were a little behind on some of our goals (like the number of lessons we need to teach and stuff) because it’s been a little abnormal (But in a good way!).
On Monday we went to a part of Lima called Plaza Norte, which was REALLY weird because it’s like a nice American mall — I’m used to dirty, open-air markets and stuff! We ate Chili’s, and I don’t know if it’s just the fact that Peruvian hamburgers are terrible or just that I’ve been living off bread and chicken and rice for months now, but the hamburger I ate was AMAZING! (*sniff* I miss the U.S….)
Plaza Norte was also really cool because you could buy crazy stuff from other parts of Peru; there are a few little shops that sell souvenirs from the selva (“jungle”), like dried-piranha-head necklaces (If you put the head facing forward it looks like a piranha is coming out of your chest!), dried alligators (That was a little weird, but cool), and blow-dart guns (I would have totally bought some of them if I actually had money! We didn’t have time to go take any out of the bank before!). So that was great and disappointing at the same time.
Tuesday we had a little bit of a shock when our Zone Leaders told us we were going to have another companion and become a trio. So now there’s three of us: Me, Elder Pastenes, and Elder Mayta!
I’ll include a picture from Friday, when we ate chicken foot. The chicken foot was actually pretty tasty! You just have to make sure you bite at the knuckles so you can bite off part of the toe and then chew until there’s only bone left!
Wednesday was less great because I discovered a strange lump on the back of my head, and THEN discovered it was oozing pus! (Sorry, TMI) Turns out it was a maggot from a bug bite — there are insects here that bite and then lay eggs in animals! No, I’m kidding! (Although I actually know people who had that problem!) It was some sort of infected pore, so now I’ve got to put some antibacterial cream on it every night — or rather, my companions do! (They REALLY don’t like it!)
(I’ll be nice and not include a picture of it!)
OK, now for something a little less gross and a little more spiritual: We’re going to have a baptism this Saturday! We’ve been working with the Trujillo family for about a month and they’re ready to be baptized! It’s really great because they even came to church yesterday when they also had a mandatory school appointment at the same time! The mother, Vilma, had a problem with that because it’s not like they would be choosing to do something unworthy for the Sabbath Day by going and it was something that they would be ticketed for if they didn’t attend, but her husband, Jesus, has a LOT of faith! We told him that it was a commandment to attend church and if he went he would be blessed — and then he turned to Vilma and said, “We’re going to church on Sunday, because it’s more important”! (This family is really awesome! We taught them the Word of Wisdom, about how they can’t drink coffee because it’s addictive, and when we asked Jesus if he had any coffee in his house his kids ran and got it all and he told us to take it! Then, when we taught about the importance of paying tithing, Jesus and Vilma said they would, and when we asked why Jesus said, “It says we need to in the scriptures, so we will”! IT’S SO AWESOME!!!)
And then on Sunday I completed 5 months in my mission! 5 down, 19 left!
Now, for suffering through my nasty infection story and happy rant, here are some pictures of interesting stuff…
1) Remember the parrot that bit Elder Pastenes from last week’s email?
2) Elder Mayta with his PLATA $$$ ¡Qué pituco!
3) And, just ’cause (I don’t remeber exactly what happened…)
¡Tengan un buen día!
— Elder Schroeder
