Hey all!
Not much to report here – unless you count three earthquakes, inventing a new Spanish word, granades, proselyting, and lots of ninjas.
I’ll start with the earthquakes. Earthquakes are supposed to be really common around here, and they weren’t lying – three in one week is impressive! The earthquakes, on the other hand… really boring. The first one I completely missed because of the ninjas (I’ll explain later). The second one was so slight only people who were standing up felt anything, and unfortunately I was sitting in class at the time… And the third one shook the house I was teaching my maestra (teacher, female) in. Of course, the houses are so thin you can’t knock on the door too hard or the house will fall over, so… still not impressive. At least I felt it! (Everyone in my family knows what quote goes here!)
In Spanish class with Hermano Flores, we invented the word “fiestar”: to party. We asked him what “to party” was in Spanish and he told us there wasn’t one. Then pure genius happened and Elder Willard decided he would use “fiestar”, creating the newest Spanish word! It actually works with most, if not all, of the Spanish rules we’ve learned about, and thus we are on a quest to educate everyone we can about “fiestar”! Sorry, typo up there: I meant “granadillas”. I told Kyra about these in my email to her, so I’m just going to quote my description of this fruit here:
“Halloween was the day I ate a granadilla. I don’t know if they have them outside of Perù, but I recommend trying it at least once because it is an unforgettable experience. A granadilla tastes pretty good – kind of like an orange mixed with pomegranate – but it is “the single most unappetizing fruit I have ever had,” to quote myself when I had finished it. It looks like an orange with a point on one end, but once you peel off the rind it’s basically a sac of seeds and juice. Then you’re supposed to poke a hole in the sac, scoop around the inside with a spoon to loosen the seeds, and then use the spoon to dig out the seeds (make sure not to bite them). The reason this is so disgusting is because the juice inside has the exact same consistency as snot, so it feels like eating a spoonful of snot and seeds… and the seeds-juice-sac combo looks like eating an eggsac. I ate it as a dare, but it’s really not that bad once you get past the looks. The problem was everyone at the table was so disgusted that I ate it, meaning their faces were HILARIOUS, which, of course, made me laugh while a strand of snot juice hung from my mouth and made them more disgusted and made me laugh harder… Good times! Seriously, if you do ever find one and decide to try it, make sure you get a video of everyone’s reactions when they first see it and when they try to eat it because it is seriously disgusting! (The funny part is the granadilla tasted better than the other cafeteria food!)”
Halloween was also the day we went proselyting. We left for a section of Lima East around noon and when we got there were paired with another Elder from the CCM and an Elder from Lima East. I was paired with an Elder (whose name escapes me at the moment) who didn’t speak much English – he’s a Latino – and the first hour was really difficult because I couldn’t understand ANYONE except Elder Alder, who I was also paired with. Then I guess I got used to the speed – or developed the Gift of the Interpretation of Tongues for a few hours – because at the end I could actually understand almost every sentence that was spoken! It was a really awesome experience, especially because I didn’t hyave to say much. We just walked around to every house, gave the person a pass-along card, and asked if they wanted to have the missionaries come by sometime next week. I think it was the best way to improve my Spanish because I could just focus on understanding rather than how to say what I want!
Lima East is an interesting place. I was told it was “the nicest mission in Lima” and if that’s true… I’m in serious trouble! Either that or we went to the most ghetto part in all of Lima East, because it was an actual shantytown. Most of the houses were wooden-plank walls with a tin roof built on a dirt road along the side of a mountain! It was such a bizarre – yet interesting – sight that I was constantly looking around at everything! I wish I could have gotten a picture because I simply cannot describe it in words. I’ll probably get plenty of pictures of shantytowns like that one in Lima North!
The ninjas came on Halloween night. A few people decided to go trick-or-treating along the hallway, but that got old pretty fast because no one had any candy to give away. Around 11:00 PM, however, everyone in the district planned a quest to retrieve the janitor’s
keys Elder Willard had seen a few days earlier. They were hanging in a closet on the first floor, and everyone dressed up as ninjas (wrapped a T-shirt around our heads) to go retrieve them. We basically creeped downstairs and then walked down the hallway, opened the closet, took the keys, and then used them to unlock the padlock on my closet (I’d lost my keys and couldn’t get it to open). It wasn’t very exciting, but now I know how to make a ninja hood! I’ll include a picture of me wearing it and a few others of the Lima Temple and the CCM.
Hasta luego!
Elder Schroeder
Me with the ninja hood:
From left to right: Elders Pierce, Bly, Willard, and Alder in ninja attire:
The goal of our mission:
And our shared room:
