Not really an eventful week down here in South America, just the norm. Of course, since I’m gringo (that’s the term for white people down here) strange things occasionally happen.

For example, last P-Day we were walking to the Internet hub where we write emails to everyone when a woman in the street called us and asked us for help. She was obviously very drunk and asked us to help her get to her house. We’d kind of be jerks not to (Even if it’s her fault she can’t find it!) and so we started to walk with her to her house. She didn’t really remember where it was, just the way to get there, and it took a while because she walked, well, like a drunk lady and kept stopping every 20 feet or so to say something wierd like, “Ustedes no son de aquí” (“You’re not from around here) or, “¿Ustedes son testigos de Jehova? ¡Por esto no me gustan los testigos!” (“You’re Jehova’s Witnesses? Because of this I don’t like the Witnesses!”). Of course we explained a little bit about how we are from the U.S. and Chile (Elder Rodriguez is Chilean) and we’re missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but she was so loopy she didn’t really process anything. We eventually stopped helping her when she started getting really irritated with us because we didn’t say, “hi” to some random woman in the street: “¡Deben saludar a los peruanos! ¡¿Ustedes son mejores que ellos?!” In the end she got so angry that she just wandered off, so I guess she made it to the house eventually…

As I mentioned last week (And several other times before…), there are a lot of drunk people around here. It’s gotten to the point that when we returned to our cuarto after lunch the other day we found a drunk guy passed out on the steps in front of the house below us (We live on the 2nd story) and we had to ask ourselves if he was there when we left in the morning! We kind of knew the guy (He’s Angel, the drunk brother of Kathy from last week’s email), and we didn’t really think we needed to do much for him, especially since he was already in front of his mom’s house and was REALLY drunk, so we figured it might just be safer to leave him how he was.

Tuesday I got interviewed because — You guessed it! — I’m gringo. We were talking to someone we ran into and all of a sudden a guy and a girl walk up to us and begin talking with us out of nowhere! They introduced themselves and then the guy told us he’d been looking for us ever since he recieved a phone call from a cousin/friend/someone that there was a gringo wandering around the 8th Zone in Collique (Obviously me!) with a slightly-less gringo (My companion). So they went looking until they found us (A task that’s not very difficult — You just have to look for the only person with blonde hair in all of Collique!).

Turns out this guy, Brian, was a student studying English, and his homework was to interview someone who spoke English, so he’d been asking people if they spoke English or knew someone who did, and then he found us! The interview was basically what you’d expect from someone in the U.S. who was in a Spanish class and had to interview someone who spoke Spanish: Really basic, easy questions about me and why I’m here and stuff (And since I’m here as a missionary, and they recorded the whole thing and are going to show it to the class, I might end up with a lot of missionary opportunities!). The last question was a little wierd because Brian asked me if I like the idea of Civil Union, but it was good. After the interview we talked and we’re planning to visit Brian this week to teach him!

Friday was difficult, only becasue it was SO COLD! We went back to the cuarto to put on our coats because we were FREEZING! And then, well, we’re guys and we look cool, so we took a picture.

But seriously, winter has definitely started! When we wake up it’s so cold that we get out of bed and run to put on a jacket and socks! Then sometimes we start fires (Partly because it’s so cold and partly because we’re guys and we like playing with fire!)

Hey, it doesn’t say we shouldn’t do stuff like that in the mission rules, and we never do anything dumb! (Well, that’s not true, but the part about the rules is!)

Not really much else to share here, so I guess I’ll let you all know what happens this week! Hopefully something interesting!

— Elder Schroeder

P.S. Here’s some other interesting photos I took recently. Enjoy!

The view from our cuarto one day:

How we do things in Peru:

And a picture of the smoking monkey Elder Rodriguez has:

Well, nothing new to report this week. Later!

Nah, I’m just kidding! There’s always something interesting around here, even if it only means eating wierd fruit.  See my picture below.

If you ask me, it’s basically a cross between a banana and a caterpillar, and if you mix that idea with a little bit of lemon you also get the idea of what it tasted like!

This week was a little sad because we gave away Ashly. She can’t live with us because we’re missionaries and we’re always gone, so we’ve been looking for a home for her and finally found one. It’ll be good for her, but this week it was a little weird to open the door to our apartment without something attacking our pant legs. Elder Rodriguez was the most sad because she’d lived with him for about a month.

But, it’s all good and we’re pretty much used to the life around here.

… Well, we were until Tuesday, when we ended up as life consultants for seven people!

It started after we came back from lunch and passed by a family to see how they were because we’d received a call from them. When we got there, we discovered:

* one drunk person (Kathy)
* one absent person (German)
* one crazy drunk person (Angel)
* one normal person (Kathy’s mother)
* and then, several hours later, one dying person (also German)

Turns out Angel, Kathy’s brother, had come over to visit and he and Kathy had been drinking a little. When German, Kathy’s husband, saw this, he got angry at Kathy becuase she’d promised to stop drinking (but obviously hadn’t kept that) and then left the house. So we got there to find Kathy crying, Angel trying to confort her by saying he’d perform an exorcism on German, and Kathy’s mom trying to help them both. We got there and, with the help of Kathy’s mom, tried to get everything straightened out, and a few hours later German came back… and then had a fever so high he was dilusional. Soooo… that was kind of new!

After that we went to visit a mother who’d asked us to come to her house to correct her 10-year-old son by teaching him about the Bible (That was pretty much how she phrased it (Obviously NOT in English!)). The funny thing is she’s not even Mormon! So we taught her son a part of one of the lessons and I guess we’ll go visit her again or something! (I’m still kind of wierded out about this…)

The last lesson we taught was the longest and also kind of funny (In a not-funny way). We went to visit an investigator to find that she’d been yelling at both of her kids because they weren’t doing well in school. (They both refused to do their homework and didn’t pay attention in class, so they kind of deserved it) So we had a talk with them and then told them to go and apologize to their mother. Elder Rodriguez and I both thought it’d be great: The mom would accept their apology, they’d all hug and cry, and then we could leave them in peace.

So the kids slowly went up to her and one of them said, “Mamá… ¡perdóname!” …Then the next part did not go according to plan. The mom yelled, “¡No!” and then proceeded to rant about how she wouldn’t forgive them until they actually started to behave and listen to her and do their homework and how much she was sacrificing for them and how they never showed gratitude and… ON AND ON SHE WENT! It got to the point when one of the kids looked at us as if to ask if we were sure this was a good idea, but we didn’t really know what to do because she was in full rant mode. When she finally calmed down we talked with her and the kids and finally got everything sorted out: with the family hugging and crying and all that.

Not much new that happened besides strange problems like that. We helped one woman make shoes (Everything here is made by the people, and it’s actually pretty interesting: The woman took some pre-cut shoe material, sewed it up with some super-duty thread, folded it and twisted it a bit, and in the end it was a shoe!) and we also had some drunks fighting in the street outside our cuarto at 2:00 AM (That tends to happen a lot around here). So life’s pretty good here in Peru!

— Elder Schroeder

Hey all!

As you all learned last week, I had my first cambio, or transfer, in my mission! Before I’d been stuck in Machu Picchu teaching the people there and teaching my new companions how to travel around the area and who’s who and all that, but on Tuesday and all throughout this week I took a time warp back to my first week in Machu Picchu, when I had no idea who was who and where we were (Luckily I didn’t have to repeat the part when I couldn’t understand anyone or talk!). I’ve been transferred to an area called Villa Hermosa, which was closed for a few months. Then, one transfer ago, Elder Rodriguez went and opened the area again, and then one transfer later I showed up to help him. It’s a little bit difficult for several reasons:

1) It’s not actually a ward, but a branch, and only about 40 members go to church regularly (And I thought Machu Picchu was bad! At least 100 people showed up there!)

2) The members are a little cold towards us because they felt a little abandoned when the missionaries left 3 months ago, so it’s a little hard to even talk to them.

3) When the missionaries left, so did all the investigators and even some of the members, so we have to contact a lot of people (Neither of us like to contact!) and search for the less-active members that disappeared to try and help them too. Then, of course, we have to strengthen the recent converts too…

4) Our area is HUGE! I thought Machu Picchu was big because we were always finding new areas, but at least I managed to explore all of it before I left. Villa Hermosa is about 3 times bigger! This part, called Collique, is basically an upside-down “V”-shaped valley in between the hills, so we have “that hill” to “that hill over there” for side limits and the 4th zone until the 9th zone (a “zone” is what we’d call a subdivision) of Collique for the upper and lower limits. So, if you think about it, we basically have an area 5 subdivisions up and 5 or 6 subdivisions across! It actually used to be two separate areas at one point!… Thus, lots of walking.

5) The buses that make travel a lot faster only go from the 4th zone to the 7ths, so we have to walk until the 8th and 9th! (Needless to say, my legs are going to be really strong by the time I finish my mission!)

6) As I mentioned, we’re kind of the “uppermost” part of Collique in the “V” valley part, so our area is the furthest from EVERYONE in our Zone! All the other missionaries are closer, but we’re the furthest and Villa Hermosa has had little success, so we’re basically outcasts: The Zone doesn’t really care about us because there are a TON of missionaries in the Zone and we’re really far away from all the activities and other missionaries, so we’re pretty sure if we stopped showing up to Zone meetings no one would even notice. (We’ve decided that Villa Hermosa it’s basically the red-headed stepchild of the Zone and we’re the Zone outcasts)

I’ve attached a picture to kind of give you an idea of how big we’re talking. The red lines are about the limit. If you notice, some of the roads go a little bit further north, and that’s part of our area, too.

So I got here on Tuesday around 1:00 PM (We should have been there a lot earlier but the map was wrong!) and I started getting to know the area and the people, mainly my companion, Elder Rodriguez (I already knew him a little bit because he was my Zone Leader in Machu Picchu for 5 months.

And then I also got to know our roommate, Ashly.  Cute, isn’t she?

Elder Rodriguez and his companion found her about 4 weeks ago outside the cuarto because some dogs had been “playing” with her — as in the way animals “play” with their prey before they kill it — and Elder Rodriguez saved her, cleaned her up, took her to a vet, and has been taking care of her ever since. We’re going to keep her until we can find a home for her, but it’s a little tough because she has a LOT of energy (I’ll add a photo of her attacking my camera) and we’re always gone, so she’s really bored all the time and bothers us when we return to the house.

And then I’ve pretty much just been working like we always do. Soooo… that’s basically what I’ve been doing this past week! I’ll try and get some photos so I can show you how it is here (Really, it’s not that different from Machu Picchu…)

¡Chao!
— Elder Schroeder

Hey all! I’m still here in Peru! (17 more months to go! Man, time flies!)

I’ve had a pretty good week so far, but something that makes me a little sad is that I’m going to be transferred! I’ve been here in Machu Picchu (Not the Machu Picchu!) for about 6 months now, and apparently my mission president decided I’m due for a change! I’m a little sad to leave because I really have grown to love the people here (The hills and dogs and dog poop… not so much!), but I’d have to leave at some point, so I’m excited for a new start — almost literally!

I’m going to be with Elder Rodriguez , my old zone leader (That’s pretty cool!), and he just opened this area, which means he started teaching people in this part of Lima about one change cycle earlier! That’ll be interesting!

I forgot to mention this last week (It takes a lot of thinking to write in third-person about my life!), but I baptized someone! Her name’s Elda, and she’s a pretty cool person (I think) (I’ll explain about this later). Elder Pastenes (my previous companion) met her before he finished his mission and took us to visit her so we’d know where her house was. She’s kind of interesting because she’s about 50 years old and lives alone at the top of the hill — she’s never been married, never had kids, and doesn’t even have a job! All day long she works on her house, either inside or out, fixing it up and digging a massive hole out front! (I’m still not quite sure what its purpose is, but she must have something planned!)

We found out that the reason for her loneliness is because she has a hard time trusting people; apparently she used to be fine until someone robbed her of EVERYTHING she had about ten years ago, and ever since then she’s had a hard time opening up to people (It was a bit of a struggle for us to teach her when we didn’t know much about her and when she clammed up every time we asked her about herself!) and trusting them. She eventually came to trust us and the Church.  She wanted to know all of the legal stuff for a baptism (we had to explain that there weren’t any!) and I got to baptize her!

The only problems were that I had to do it twice because she didn’t go all the way under the first time, the water was FREEZING, and we had a grand total of SIX PEOPLE (!!!) at the baptism: Me, Elder Mayta, Elda, James, Helena, and Alexandra. Where the heck was everyone that said they’d come?!

And then Elda forgot her towel, so I gave her mine to use and had to use my backup… it’s literally a dishrag! (And remember, the water was COLD!)

But, all in all, it was pretty good, so I can’t complain too much!

Then I also got to explore a little bit more of Machu Picchu and decided to talk to people in this giant hill that’s right where the boundary line between our area and the next area is. We crossed the line by ONE house and ran into members that told us we were in the wrong area! So we just decided to follow the boundary up until we came to the top of the hill, knocking on doors as we went. And, of course, right before I leave I discover all the good people! We met a lot of humble people that want to listen and follow Christ. Normally you encounter two kinds of people in the hills: Poor humble people or poor lazy people (“Do we really have to go ALL THE WAY down the hill to go to church? Can’t I just pray in my house and we’ll call it good?”)

Then, when we had talked to the people in the last house at the top of the hill, we realized we couldn’t really go down the way we got up, so we just went over the top to another hill nearby! It was kind of interesting to see all the rugged, untouched dirt and rocks where people hadn’t managed to build houses yet, and we had a lot of trouble with loose dirt and rocks trying to kill us (If we slipped we’d pretty much slide all the way to the bottom!), so that kept stuff exciting. I’m just really disappointed that I didn’t bring my camera!

On Saturday we went to visit a family that we’re trying to marry only to discover that the “husband” didn’t want to get married any more and had fled the house! So we did our best to comfort the wife, who’d been dealing with this side of her husband for the last 13 years and broke down and cried while we were there. It’s really sad to see just how much a bad father can ruin a family: This woman, Jacky, has been waiting for him to change for 13 years and really wants to have a stable family (but can’t without him) and his three sons are all really hurt by the fact that their dad isn’t a good father, although they show it in different ways: One wants to leave and go live with his grandmother, one is just angry all the time, and the youngest tries to make a joke out of it — in school the other day he stood on his stool and yelled that he was willing to buy a new dad from someone because his dad ran away from the rest of family. Hopefully it will get better, but if not I’m out 100 soles ’cause I already paid for their wedding (We needed to pay by a certain day and they didn’t have the money, so I just paid the rest)!

So, yeah, that’s what I’ve got going on this week. Sorry I don’t have stuff a little more interesting, but to make up for it I’ve added a picture of the stowaway I discovered when I went to pack up my stuff. (I don’t even know what a spider would eat in there! There’s not a whole lot of bugs!)

— Elder Schroeder

Well, nearly 7 months down! (And 6 months here in Machu Picchu! Probably means next week I’ll be transferred to a new area!) Normally I’d be really excited to go to another area and get some new experiences, except now we’re finally starting to get somewhere with some of our investigators! Two of them, Jacky and Ricardo, are finally going to get married so we can baptize them, but if I go now I’ll miss it! Oh, well. I guess that’s just the mission life…

Well, not much to report here, so I’ll try to spice it up a little…

“Good morning, all, and welcome to Elder Schroeder Central, your source for all the crazy events in the life of an American missionary in Peru! This week we’ve got a little bit of everything, from cucarachas to testifying of the truth! (Unfortunately, that’s about as interesting as it gets, but stay tuned anyway!)

“On Tuesday Elder Schroeder “single-handedly saved mission work in Machu Picchu of Lima, Peru” — at least, according to him. According to the report, Elder Schroeder and his companion, Elder Mayta, left their apartment at around 7:45 AM to go buy breakfast at a tienda nearby. Upon returning to the house, however, they realized they couldn’t get in because Elder Mayta had forgotten the keys — both the one to enter the black door below AND the door to the apartment! And while it is true that Elder Schroeder and Elder Terrones (Elder Schroeder’s first companion) already figured out how to open the door to their room: They just bust out the cardboard where the pane is missing and then open the window, stick a big rod of metal through, and jiggle the latch until it opens. Lucky for them they figured that out a while back, or they would’ve had a LOT of trouble (They’re quite prone to forgetting the keys!)

“However, Elders Schroeder and Mayta had ALSO forgotten the key to the bottom door, the one behind Elder Schroeder in the photo below.

“So the problem they had is how to get the first door unlocked, because there’s not really a broken window to stick their arm through! So Elder Schroeder had to use his ninja skills to climb the black door, grab the small gate on the second floor, and then heave himself over the short wall above to get the door open. ‘That was pretty tough,’ said Elder Schroeder. ‘I’d just finished doing 50 push-ups during my exercises, and even if that’s not my best it made climbing the door a lot more difficult. I probably looked more like a beached whale than a ninja when I went over that little wall up next to the gate!’ Well, that may be true, but at least it let him open the doors so they could return to their room to do some studying and retrieve their scriptures!

“In mission news, Elder Schroeder got a chance to testify of the prophet to a skeptical investigator. On Thursday he and his companion were off contacting new people in some hill in their area (‘There are so many that we’ve lost count!’ says Elder Schroeder) and encountered a woman who was willing to listen to their message. They taught about the restoration of the complete truth through the prophet Joseph Smith, but when they explained that there is still a prophet today she said, ‘I don’t believe this man could be a prophet, because he doesn’t actually do the work of God. If he did, he would come and visit here, where there are lots of poor families and children who need his help. He isn’t a real prophet.’

“According to our sources, Elder Schroeder couldn’t just let that fly. ‘I don’t even remember what I said,’ he says. ‘I just remember that I testified that I knew he was a real prophet, even if he didn’t visit every part of the world, because I had felt it.’ Apparently she felt it, too, because she seemed quite willing after to accept it.

“Then Friday we received reports of strange cucaracha attacks, including one instance in which Elder Schroeder encountered one in his shoe! ‘I didn’t really know what was going on, but I felt something in the toe of my shoe while I was walking. I took it off and a cucaracha fell out!’ Normally the missionaries don’t have much trouble with bugs, but I guess Elder Schroeder needs to start checking his shoes!

“Well, that’s all we’ve got for you this week! Be sure to tune into Elder Schroeder Central next week for a whole new list of this week’s adventures in the life of an American missionary in Peru!”

— Elder Schroeder