¡Hola! ¿Cómo están?
I’ve almost finished a full 2 weeks in the Campo Missional! This past week was really difficult because I’ve been having a lot of trouble understanding everything that’s going on, because we’re really busy. I went on 2 exchanges this week and learned quite a bit about how to survive Peru, but Peru is not easy for a missionary to survive in — I’m always hungry because I never can get enough good food to eat, there are a lot of angry dogs and stairs (yes, angry stairs, too), and I constantly feel like I’m failing my Heavenly Father by not talking enough. And then yesterday a cat got into our cuarto and pooped and peed on the floor! I’m good, but up until Friday it was really difficult.
What did I learn on the exchanges? Well, I learned that I was right, for one thing: Peruvian food isn’t great. Elder Sepulveda, who I was with on Tuesday, introduced me to Aji-no-men, the Peruvian Ramen equivalent (That, I discovered after eating, is carcinogenic! Thanks, Elder Sepulveda!) On Friday, while I was with Elder Toth, I learned a lot more because he spoke English. He didn’t really have a whole lot of other food suggestions, except for a really good bread tienda near the church building. I’m going to have to eat there more often because it’s delicious!
This week I’ve been paying for everything because Elder Terrones is all out of money. I don’t know how he only managed to have 50 centimos left when I had 50 Soles, but if I had any problems with sharing my stuff before, well, I had to drop them. I’m fine with sharing my stuff because mi compañero has given me a lot, but I hope this doesn’t become a reoccuring thing.
Service is really hard here. If I thought it was bad to move someone’s stuff into a truck and then into their new house, I hadn’t seen anything until Wednesday. All the missionaries in this zone helped move a family out of a tiny apartment building (Have you ever tried carrying a refrigerator down stairs designed to barely accomodate a person?! (And then back up, because apparently we weren’t supposed to move it. Oops!)). Then we loaded it all into a truck and moved into their new home. And I thought the apartment was bad! Their new house wasn’t even close to the road, so we had to carry everything up a hill and then up almost 50 steps AND THEN up a LADDER! It was brutal!
Well, I don’t have a whole lot more to talk about. The only thing I want is for people to tell me what they want for Christmas. Anyone want a llama tie, a Peruvian coin purse, Peruvian scripture holders, bookmarks, nice HLJ (Spanish CTR) rings… they’ve got a lot here. I’m not sure I’ll send it in time for this Christmas (I don’t know if I’ll have time until I actually figure out what to do to get it to the US), but they’ve got some cool stuff and it’s REALLY cheap. Just send me an email and I’ll try and get it for you.
For anyone who wants to know a new Spanish word I learned this week: “resbalavisa” (“slippery”)! It still doesn’t beat my favorite Spanish word: “golosinear” (“to go around eating candy”)! So, next Halloween, say, “estoy golosineando” (“I am going around eating candy”)! Or if you’re going around eating candy right now you can use it, too. ¡Hasta Lunes!
Elder Schroeder
P.S.: I included a picture of the poop just for you, Dad. There’s a LOT of dogs around here! The other pictures are to give you an idea of what Machu Picchu looks like. It’s so ghetto!
