Hey, everyone! It’s the week of my first transfer (I still don’t know who’s getting changed, but I’m pretty sure nothing new’s going to change with me)!

Hope you all had a merry Christmas and will have a great New Years! I know I won’t sleep because Peruvians love their fiestas and fireworks! I couldn’t get to sleep the night before Navidad until around 2 AM because of all the explosions outside my window! I just wish we were more in the hills because the fireworks were incredible and we couldn’t see a lot of them because we’re surrounded by buildings! But it was still great, and I got a Christmas package from my family and some sweet ties from my companion! He’s so funny: in the Peruvian mission field, you refer to the person who trained you, your capacitador, as your “padre” of the mission. So he put some scriptures on the back that relate to fathers and sons, like John 5:19! I thought that was pretty good, but what was really nice was he put it on the back of his favorite tie, which he gave to me! Elder Terrones is AWESOME!

Aside from not sleeping on Christmas, not much has happened this week (Well, a LOT happened in my stomach, but I’m not going to mention much about this! My stomach pretty much got loved to death by the members of our ward: the Christmas tradition around here is to eat paneton, which is a kind of sweet bread with dried fruits throughout. It’s pretty good, but I don’t want to eat any more for at least another year because we ate nothing BUT paneton all Christmas — every appointment, MORE PANETON! Not the healthiest diet, and our toilet and stomachs suffered for the next two days!). But we haven’t done much because it’s just been really slow. Almost none of our investigators are progressing, partly because it’s the week of Navidad and partly because they just don’t want to change anything. We do have one success story: One of our investigatores, Hermana Roxanna, is getting baptized on the 3rd, and it looks like she wants ME to baptize her! (My first baptism!) But besides her, not much is going on.

On the 24 I got a really nice break from everything while the entire mission celebrated Navidad together. Every group created a skit and they were all pretty good… except for ours, of course. I was really disappointed, because ours could have been awesome. We were going to do a parody of the “I’ll make a man out of you” song from Mulan about the mission, and it was really good. Elder Toth, our zone leader, had written some pretty clever lyrics and we’d figured out a really good way to make it work on a stage (I would send the lyrics, but they’re in Spanish and I forgot them, so I’ll try and send a translation next week!). Our problem was we’d only practiced once and we choked during the actual performance, so we probably looked really dumb. But the other skits were pretty good; one group did a “12 días de Navidad” that was really well done.

I also had my first encounter with true aji. Aji is a very spicy flavoring they use around here and I’ve only ever had it in small amounts before in my food. But in Christmas dinner with a member there were some mysterious yellow peas that I hadn’t encountered before, and I decided I’d be adventurous. That was a mistake! Turns out it was pure aji, and my eyes watered for about 5 minutes straight!

Well, not much more to talk about or mention. Hopefully some more interesting stuff will happen next week and we’ll have some more success. If anyone wants something Peruvian or has a question, shoot me an email and I’ll try to answer it! Here are some pictures of my Christmas presents, my companion, and fireworks.

¡Chao!

— Elder Schroeder

Zack asked for some llama “selfies”, so here are some photos of llamas:

¡Feliz Navidad a todos!

Not a whole lot to report this week. The baptisms didn’t happen (AGAIN!) (*sigh*) and our lessons have been pretty normal. We’re having trouble getting new investigators because people are willing to listen for 5 minutes when we contact them in the street, but they don’t really want to listen beyond that. It doesn’t help that Elder Terrones has to do almost all the talking because I’m HORRIBLE at small talk, especially in Spanish! Who knew it would be so important to be able to talk about nothing for a while!

I discovered something really cool and really weird the other day while I was on companion exchanges with another elder, Elder Condori. About a week before he’d met a young man, 14 or 15, who had been sitting alone during a ward gathering on one of the many Peruvian microholidays. He’d talked to the young man, but he wasn’t really open and didn’t say much. One of the only things Elder Condori could get out of him was the name of his less-active aunt who lived nearby. While I was with him, we went and visited this woman and found that she didn’t have a nephew, or any relative, with the name of the young man! The only one that would fit the description had died several years ago and was the reason this woman became inactive in the Church! We think it was a ghost or an angel or something that knew this woman needed the Gospel in her life again! Crazy!

Well, not much else to report. This week’s been pretty slow, and we’re not really having a whole lot of success. We’re going to try to turn it around this week, but with Navidad who knows if we’ll have many people who want to listen with the holiday so close. Wish us luck!

A couple of  random thoughts: South American movies are really weird; using actual paper for toilet paper is not a great experience; I’m not sure if telling a fan it’s a child of God during a practice lesson is false doctrine; and epileptic people can’t teach at night here.

Now to explain:

Last P-Day we watched an Argentinian movie with a really strange plot: A guy is really good at foosball and beats a jerk who doesn’t like to lose. So Jerk Guy comes back many years later, now a professional soccer player, and is still angry about losing. So he does the natural thing: buys the town and steals the girl friend of Foosball Guy. So Foosball Guy has to go save her and then beat Jerk Guy and his professional soccer team at soccer with the help of tiny living foosball players. Is that weird or what?!

Not sure I really need to explain the TP thing. We were out of toilet paper and, well… yeah.

With the fan, we were practicing teaching an investigator about their divine lineage as a child of God. But our “investigator” was a fan and we told it it was a child of God. I don’t think that’s a sin, but it IS false doctrine…

Epileptic people, beware Peru at night during Christmastime. Every house has flashing Christmas lights (that play songs, too) that make my head hurt if I look for too long. Part of that could be because the music these lights play repeat indefinitely and EVERY set of lights plays the exact same songs!…

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll let you know when something interesting happens, but you’ll have to wait until next week! ¡Quédese!

— Elder Schroeder

Hey all–

I now have one month in the mission field! That’s not really a huge milestone, but I’m down 2.5 months now!

Brother Renken, if you get this, thanks for the earplugs! I might not get them for a while, but I REALLY will need them because not only does my companion snore, but the people that live in the apartment above us have a freaking ROOSTER and I keep waking up at 5:00 AM because it starts to crow and doesn’t stop until around 6:00! Who decided keeping a rooster in their apartment was a good idea?!

I have mixed feelings about this week. Monday was really awesome: We did the sketchiest service project yet — Lifting couches to the third story via ropes while standing on the roof! (I took pictures!) — and also had the best lesson yet! The baptism for Magaly and Marisol didn’t happen 🙁 because Magaly had some problems (and Marisol is only 10, so she’s kind of just following Magaly). So we went and met with them and I was really surprised. When we started the lesson, one of the first things Magaly said was she didn’t want to be baptized and my thought was, “Oh, no. This is exactly what I feared.” See, I thought that Magaly didn’t really have a testimony and was just getting baptized because she felt like it, and now she was going to change her mind.

But I was really surprised — And EXTREMELY happy! — to find that she didn’t want to be baptized because she didn’t feel worthy. It turns out she has a VERY strong testimony and actually understands the commitment she’ll make by being baptized, and she didn’t want to get baptized without knowing the stuff she needed to and changing the things she needed to. That’s how I knew she WAS ready, because she really understood. We resolved her concerns about being ready and then spent another TWO HOURS answering her questions about what she needed to change. She was willing to change just about everything in her life to be prepared — her clothes, her friends, her language, her boyfirend — and I was stunned by how much she was willing to change. Changing all of those for me would be HUGE (Yes, I know I’ve never had a boyfriend OR a girlfriend!), but she was willing to do it!

IT… WAS… AWESOME!!!

…Then came Thursday. I was dreading Thursday because it was the day Elder Terrones was going to go to the temple with some recent converts and I would be left with people from the ward to teach the lessons. And, since I can’t really understand or speak the language and the people don’t know our investigators very well or know how to teach the lessons, I was seriously worried. But I had enough confidence in myself that I was pretty sure I could do it.

… and THEN Elder Chamorro was my companion for the day. At first I thought, “Yay! He’s actually an elder and not just a member!” He’s serving a mission here too… but he’s got an interesting situation, as I learned. He’s living with his family, he’s only been here two months — same as me — and his mission is in Institute. I don’t know why, but I think a part of it is he’s… different and doesn’t speak very well, and the only lessons he really teaches are in Sunday School. He’s really great and can understand well, but that didn’t really help when I couldn’t understand him! I didn’t learn any of this until during our first lesson.

At first I was trying to converse with the investigator, Luisa, and Elder Chamorro said nothing, which I thought was strange, and then during the lesson when I asked him to share an experience he hadn’t been paying attention (CRUD!) and didn’t really bear testimony (He said about 20 words!)! I had asked him before the lesson if he knew how to teach the lessons and he said he did, but when I asked specifics… yeah, he didn’t really teach much other than Tithing and the Plan of Salvation (And pretty much all our investigators are learning Lesson 1, the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ…).

Soooooo… yeah, we had to have an emergency training for Elder Chamorro and afterwards he STILL didn’t talk much, but… yeah, it was tough to teach basically the whole lesson by myself while struggling to understand what the people were saying. I actually did pretty well, though!

On Friday, we contacted four drunks, soooo… that was interesting! One of them, Victor, actually accepted our message and we talked with him the next day. He really has a strong faith in God and REALLY prays with sincerity, so he has potential!

I don’t have a lot else to report except that the baptisms for Magaly and Marisol ARE happening this Saturday (without unforseen problems, which always seem to come up)!

I’m still looking for recipes you can make in a frying pan. The ingredients I have to work with are veggies, maybe meat (we don’t really have a freezer…), rice (Of course!), and things like butter, eggs, and wheat. Pancake recipes, egg recipes, and stir-fry recipes are my focus, but I want whatever else I can get, too!

Oh, and the Word of the Week: “dragonear”: “to flirt”! (Now you know why we Elders call teenage girls “dragons”!

¡Chao!
Elder Schroeder

¡Buenas tardes!

Well, this week was pretty normal, so I’ll try and include more about the lessons we’ve been teaching and our investigators. I’ll admit I don’t really know much because I don’t understand everything they’re saying, but I’ll try and share what I know!

First, the crazy stuff that happened this week. Well, not really much happened, but Tuesday marked my 2nd month in my mission! Only 22 left! On Wednesday I don’t know what happened, but ¡estuve en fuego! I was doing really well — talking to people on the street, following the guidance of the Spirit, teaching with power — it was awesome!… Then it ended 🙁   No, just kidding! I’ve been doing much better this week and am able to understand more, too!

Service this week was much more fun than the last: I got to destroy old furniture with an axe! I’ll try and include a picture if I can.

To celebrate Elder Terrones’s birthday (December 4) we bought Peruvian pizza, and it was ridiculous! We took a picture because it was at least an inch tall! They really pile ingredients on their pizzas! Unfortunately it made Elder Terrones sick, but it was good while it lasted! For his birthday he got new glasses and a cologne that I took a picture of because I thought it was funny. I’d better watch out for when he’s coming! But we also had a crisis on Friday because Elder Terrones wanted to use the Emergency Fund we’re given from Presidente to buy his glasses. We’re not supposed to use the fund without express permission, so I had to be hard and refused to leave our cuarto until he put the money back in the envelope. It was hard because he IS the Senior Companion, but he finally put it back. That was a little stressful.

Something cool I found out: Some people know that I talk in my sleep, and apparently I’m beginning to sleeptalk in Spanish! I was on exchanges with Elder Toth and he said I was talking in Spanish in my sleep! Unfortunately, I haven’t been getting much sleep because Elder Terrones snores like you wouldn’t believe and I lost my earplugs!

Well, that’s all I’ve really got to mention this week. I still don’t know what area in the mission I’m in — I’ll try to ask someone who speaks English to explain, because I don’t know a lot of location words in Spanish! Oh, and the Spanish Word of the Week: “zullar”: “to have a bowel movement”! You’d be surprised how often you need to use it, especially after eating Peruvian pizza!

On that note, onto more spiritual stuff! This week I realized just how grateful I am for the missionaries we had in our ward while I was growing up, because they’ve really influenced a lot of what I want to be like as a missionary myself. If it wasn’t for them, I think I would be like Elder Terrones. He’s not a bad missionary, but he doesn’t have a lot of drive to do a lot and kind of does the minimum he needs to. Hopefully I can change that in the next 9 weeks or so. So if you have good missionaries, give them a “thank you” from me!

We’ve been having a bit of trouble getting baptisms here because we have to focus a lot on member retention. After they’re baptized, the new members tend to stop coming to church and become less-active, so we’re trying to balance finding new people and teaching them and visting less-active members. It’s not easy, especially since we’ll find a new investigator and then Elder Terrones decides we shouldn’t spend too much time on them because they aren’t really dedicated to changing. I understand why we shouldn’t focus on people who don’t care and that I can’t actually tell what the investigators say a lot of the time, but I feel like he gives up too soon.

However, we have two baptismal dates! These girls, sisters, named Magaly and Marisol, ages 17 and 10, have agreed to be baptized on December 12! Their older sister also agreed to be baptized but we’re going to delay her date because she has a lot of doubts about it — if you think about it, baptism is a big commitment: it means attending church every Sunday and reading the scriptures and praying every day for the rest of your life! But the benefits are SOOO worth it! I realized while we were teaching them about the Holy Ghost that I really take the Gift of the Holy Ghost for granted. I didn’t really think about how much I rely on the guidance of the Spirit to know what to do!

We also have two new investigators with a lot of potential. One of them is named Kelly, and she is a golden investigator: she wants to listen, she wants to change, and she has been praying and reading! She can’t always meet with us, but she is actively trying! It’s really awesome! The other investigator is Johnathan. He was an investigator many years ago and actually attended church for at least a year before the missionaries lost him. We found him because he was home — he used to work all day, all week, and thus couldn’t meet the missionaries or go to church (Sounds like a hint from God, no?!) — and he wants to resume the lessons, so we’ve got two really good opportunities for baptisms!

Well, that’s all for this week. For those of you who want gifts, I’m afraid I can’t get llama ties or other decent Peruvian stuff for a little while because I can’t go to the store where I bought them until I can go to the temple. For those who want ties, what color would you like? They have just about every color, and for anyone else who wants something let me know. They have a lot of stuff, and don’t feel shy!

One final request: We recently got a little stove for cooking and I want some recipes. We’ve got a pot and a frying pan (I’ve included a picture of my toast this morning) but I need some more variety. If you know some cheap and simple recipes, please share because I’m kind of tired of sandwiches and apples!

Well, ¡Hasta la próxima semana!

Elder Schroeder